The Vatican Wants the Temple Mount Taken From the Jews

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Giulio Meotti, 30/06/15 00:17

giulio meott

צילום: עצמי

Giulio Meotti

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary.

In 2000, speaking in a mosque in Palestinian-held Ramallah, Yasser Arafat declared, “No one will succeed in removing us from our land, including Jerusalem, and the Palestinian flag will fly from the Temple Mount and from the churches in Jerusalem.”

Arafat could say that because he had won the Vatican's support for his terroristic strategy. On June 26th, 2015, the Vatican signed its first treaty with the “State of Palestine”. It is the logical conclusion of a long path.

When the pontiff John Paul II ascended to the Temple Mount in 2000, Judaism’s most holy site, he wasn’t welcomed by Israeli officials, but by representatives of the Palestinian Authority, and the holy complex was bedecked in Arab flags. It was the Pope's implicit recognition of Islamic hegemony. It was taken to mean that Islam and Christianity superseded Judaism and have the right to “inherit” its holy places.

Since then, the Holy See’s taking a stance as the ally of the heads of the Palestinian Authority in the place most holy to the Jewish people, became almost a fait accompli.

The Catholic de-legitimization of Israel passes through the war on Jerusalem and the war on Jerusalem passes through the Temple Mount. The site where the Jewish people worshipped for hundreds of years and the focal point of every practicing Jew’s prayers is under assault from the Vatican.

The Vatican-PLO agreements have been signed to enable the eviction of the Jews from Jerusalem. This follows a memorandum signed by Palestinian and Vatican officials in 2000 which repeated the Vatican call for an international mandate to preserve “the proper identity and sacred character” of Jerusalem. It means a return to a time when half of Israel’s capital was under Islamic control, the Old City was closed to Jews, the synagogues were desecrated, and walls, barbed wire, and snipers divided the city by force.

The Vatican is consistent. In 1964, when Pope Paul VI made the first papal visit to Jerusalem, Jews and Christians with Israeli passports were barred from entering the Old City. And no Vatican official complained about that.

What will the Jews do apart from pleasing tyrants and their collaborators? Here's what they should do: Start taking control of the Temple Mount. It will be harder to chase them away if they do that.